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Bottled water contains up to 100 times more tiny pieces of plastic than was previously estimated, scientists said.
The average liter of bottled water contains around 240,000 detectable plastic fragments, researchers wrote in a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were able to find microscopic bits of plastic, called nanoplastics, by probing samples with lasers that were tuned to make specific molecules resonate.
Scientists have known for years that there's plastic in water. A 2018 study detected an average of around 300 particles of plastic per liter of water.
At the time, they were measuring microplastics — small plastic pieces less than 5 millimeters long.
In the latest study, researchers examined nanoplastics, which are particles less than 1 micrometer. For reference, the diameter of a human hair is about 70 micrometers.
With the new capacities to study nanoplastics, scientists found that the amount of plastic fragments in bottled water is about 10 to 100 times more than was previously discovered.
The average liter of bottled water contains around 240,000 detectable plastic fragments, researchers wrote in a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were able to find microscopic bits of plastic, called nanoplastics, by probing samples with lasers that were tuned to make specific molecules resonate.
Scientists have known for years that there's plastic in water. A 2018 study detected an average of around 300 particles of plastic per liter of water.
At the time, they were measuring microplastics — small plastic pieces less than 5 millimeters long.
In the latest study, researchers examined nanoplastics, which are particles less than 1 micrometer. For reference, the diameter of a human hair is about 70 micrometers.
With the new capacities to study nanoplastics, scientists found that the amount of plastic fragments in bottled water is about 10 to 100 times more than was previously discovered.
Bottled water contains up to 100 times more plastic than previously estimated, new study says
A new study by researchers at Columbia and Rutgers shows that the average liter of bottled water contains nearly a quarter million pieces of nanoplastic.
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